The Olympias Trireme – 5th Century B.C Warship Reborn
July 17, 2010
Many historians have long suspected that the performance of the Greek triremes as reported by Esculus and others, were overstated. Some have referred to them as “mythological.” The Olympias trireme, built in 1987, designed by the naval architect John Coates, who died last week, has proven to be as fast and maneuverable as the triremes described in the ancient texts. [...]
Read MoreAstrodene’s Historical Naval Fiction Log Book – A New Newsletter
May 4, 2010
Fans of naval fiction either know or should know of Astrodene’s Historical Naval Fiction web site and forum. A wonderful resource, lots of great information on books both old and new, as well as very nice folks in the forum. They are now launching a naval fiction newsletter, “‘Log Book.” delivered by e-mail (with [...]
Read MoreUnder Sail : A Boy’s Voyage Around Cape Horn by Felix Reisenberg – A Review
March 8, 2010
Under Sail is a remarkable account of sixteen year old Felix Riesenberg’s first voyage on a square rigger from South Street Seaport in New York, to Honolulu and back. He sailed on the A.J. Fuller, a Bath built, copper clad, wooden hulled, three skysail yard medium clipper in the waning days of the age of [...]
Read MoreMelville’s White Jacket and the question of justice
December 9, 2008
In a comment on a prior post, Fiddler’s Green, Redwing mentioned White Jacket, or The World in a Man-of-War, by Herman Melville. I had never read the novel. I am now doing so and enjoying it very much. (It can be downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg.) White Jacket and Redburn were apparently each written [...]
Read MoreFrom Lord Cochrane to the Wellington Hurricanes – the Evolution the Nautical Hero Part 1. The Founder of our Feast – Thomas Cochrane
September 28, 2008
Joseph Campbell wrote in his The Hero with a Thousand Faces that all stories follow the ancient patterns of myth and legend. Whether the heroes of nautical fiction quite fit Campbell’s monomyths is open to question but there is no doubt that nautical fiction has had its own well established archetypes. The greatest single archetype [...]
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